Rebirth, not Resistance

Allen Pike has one of the best articles I’ve read all year. It’s a story about Nickelback, creation, and staying human. You should totally read it. No, seriously, stop reading this. Go. NOW.

One year ago, we released Party Monster, our fun little DJ app for parties and road trips. We take our work seriously, but we included something a little unprofessional: by default, the app wouldn’t play Nickelback.

Allen proposes people react to feedback in one of three ways:

Resistance – Dealing with it.

Split Personality – Turning on and off versions of yourself to fit the particular audience.

Reclusion – Hiding.

When I relaunched Refreshing Content a bit over a year ago (!) Josh Farkas, the human boy-man, was full on in reclusion mode. The true goal behind Cubicle Ninjas’ birth in 2008 was to build a creative sanctuary for smart designers and developers. Meanwhile, my secret personal objective was to provide a means of stable income while I worked on my next graphic novel. But life is funny and I got much more than I wished for. We kind of drowned in our success, taking over nearly every waking thought for over five years. But as CEO, different muscles were being used and I missed making things by myself.

To me though I see it all less as resistance, more rebirth. Everything that doesn’t work dies. Everything that I love is pardoned. And the things I don’t know? Well, I hope to meet them soon, face-to-face over a cup of tea.